Celebration
by Cherry13
Summary: A one shot unless people want more. Amidst the celebrating in Luca following Sin's destruction and Yuna's speech, Wakka and Lulu find something to build on for the future. Fluff!


**I don't own Square or the characters.....dammit.**  
  
It was celebration time. The streets of Luca were packing with so many people parading and dancing, and singing, and drinking, that a visitor would have thought it part of some long-standing festival in homage of bacchanalia, or perhaps the world was ending the next day, and the people of Spira were saying goodbye, and partying as if each second was their last. Perhaps the favoured blitz team had won the cup or perhaps Sin had finally, and permanently been put done.  
  
Elsewhere, in every corner of Spira, the same scenario was repeating where the citizens couldn't gather to witness the speech of the High Summoner and her honoured Guardians. Kilika, and Besaid Island hosted midnight bonfires, with dancers circling the flames, and great banquets of food laid out, and everywhere, tears and laughter, and hysterical rejoicing.  
  
The rejoicing was more subdued, but still there, on Mt. Gagazet, where the remaining Ronsos gathered to say goodbye to their dead, and offer them the death of Sin as vindication. Ronso artisans had already begun their preliminary clay models of the statue of the High Summoner, complete with a grand horn to honour her.  
  
Guadosalam was a ghost town; all the Guado had scattered following Maester Seymour's onslaught of the Ronso. They feared retribution, perhaps rightfully so, but their part, they took flight to the forest of Macalania, where they could hide and nurse the shame that Seymour had inflicted on them all.  
  
Pockets of sadness were still present in Spira; the world after all, had just excised a demon. After the cancer had been removed, the body still had to heal, but it did Yuna's heart good to hear the rejoicing of the people in the streets below her rooms at Luca's most prestigious Inn. It told her that Tidus's sacrifice, and his disappearing, hadn't been in vain. He was gone, but it hadn't been for nothing.  
  
After her speech, and after the tedious feasts that the officials of Luca had insisted on throwing in her honour, Yuna had retreated to her suite of rooms. She did not want to see anyone, did not want to talk to anyone. Rikku and Lulu had came and went, offered their support, and she could do little more than smile weakly at them, and ask for a little bit of time to herself. She needed to be alone right now.  
  
Lulu was worried about Yuna. The girl was her sister, through and through. They had grown up together, they had traveled together, eaten together, shared the same bed in the communal hut that the orphans of Besaid Island occupied. They had endured Yuna's pilgrimage together, and slaughtered the scourge of Spira together. But Yuna had to mourn alone, and for once, the powerful black mage felt completely helpless. This was a start of new era, she tried to tell herself. Yuna was a woman grown now. Though her big sister Lulu would always be there for her, she was no longer needed continually at her side. It was a big of an adjustment for Lulu too. She was used to always taking care of Yuna. But no more. The maternal instinct in Lulu was protesting.  
  
So it was that Lulu found herself on the roof of the Luca Inn, settled on a rattan chair with a wineglass at her side. She watched the crowds rejoicing on the streets far below, and she tried to be heartened by it. The beast that had taken her true love was dead. Revenge was hers. And Chappu's. Now she must try to say goodbye to him. It was hard to do.  
  
She'd been forcing herself to deal with Chappu's death since the moment she'd found out. It wasn't at all easy. Lulu had a lot of resentment, a lot of guilt. She resented Luzzu for persuading Chappu to go to war. She resented Chappu himself for going. He knew it was a suicide mission, and he'd still gone. She felt guilty that she had not tried to stop him. Scratch that. That she'd not stopped him period. She'd protested, but he'd still went.  
  
'I should have knocked him unconscious until his ship left.' She thought.  
  
"I could have kept him from going." Lulu whispered aloud.  
  
"No, you couldn't've."  
  
Lulu's head whipped around, and she narrowed her eyes on the offending speaker. But she relaxed when she saw it was Wakka. Though she would never tell anyone, he was her one weakness. She used to think it was because he was the brother of her dead lover. But things that Tidus had said to her on the pilgrimage had forced her to think secret thoughts that had at first seemed disrespectful. Now she entertained her notions with a bit of school-girl giddiness, although she would never admit to anyone just yet, the stirrings of wonder in her gut.  
  
"You shouldn't sneak up on people like that." She scolded him half-heartedly. She could not ever really stay mad at Wakka.  
  
Wakka was standing right over her, and the way he looked down at her, made Lulu feel as if she were a doll sitting on a shelf, being admired. That grin that always came to Wakka so easily, came now, and then evolved into a huge smile.  
  
"Sorry, Lu. But you shouldn't be sitting up here all alone! Let's go down in the streets and get something to eat! Let's go celebrate!"  
  
"You're not at all phased about Tidus going away?" Lulu tested this area carefully. She didn't want to bring down Wakka's mood.  
  
He'd been crushed when Tidus had disappeared before their eyes. But now Wakka looked downwards, his hands coming up to comb through his hair. Lulu recognized it as a sign that Wakka was either embarrassed, or resigned. It was the latter, she discovered.  
  
"Ya, I'm phased. I'm sad he's gone. I miss him, you know? But to be too sad, it's like he went away for nothing." Wakka looked at her once more. "Come on. Sin is dead. How many more times you think we're going to get to celebrate this? How many more Eternal Calms you think we're gonna get? Tidus went away for this. I intend it do it right, you know?"  
  
Lulu could not help a faint, sad smile.  
  
"I know." She said.  
  
"So, I want you to come with me!"  
  
"Wakka! It's so crazy down there..." Lulu shifted her eyes away. "It's getting late too..."  
  
They'd played this game before, over and over. He'd always come to drag her out of her hut at Besaid, and she'd always say it was too late, give some excuse. He could read her like an open book though, knew what she wasn't saying. She was still testing the waters of actually living after Chappu's death. Still afraid of being around too many people and actually being alive.  
  
"'Nough of this!" Wakka edged around the wineglass, and grabbed her wrist.  
  
Lulu's eyes widened in surprise, and she gave into just one small smile. Then broke into the lines of the play, taking her cue.  
  
"Wakka, no! Let me go, or I'll roast you alive."  
  
"Do it, then!"  
  
She gave in. She always gave in. She threatened to burn him alive a million times, and it never happened. Lulu let Wakka drag her off the roof, down the gilded stairway, and out into the streets of Luca.  
  
Almost immediately, the crowd went nuts. Their faces were known. Of course, they were. They were legendary guardians in their own right now, and everyone knew the story of the pilgrimage. They'd all seen Lulu, dark and somber on Yuna's left side, and Wakka, standing like some pillar of strength by Rikku. They even had the titles. Lady Lulu and Sir Wakka.  
  
There were flowers all over Luca right now. Where so many flowers had come from, Lulu had no idea. There were millions of them, and the people began showering Wakka and Lulu with them as soon as they were recognized. The crowd surged forward, and then receded, and Lulu realized that she was grinning. Being at the center of such a storm of ecstatic joy was contagious, and she could feel tearful happiness welling up inside her chest.  
  
"This is....wonderful..." Lulu turned to Wakka with a huge smile on her face.  
  
Wakka grinned back, a flower petal catching in the red tufts of his hair.  
  
"Told ya, Lu. Now let's go get something to eat. I bet they give us free food!"  
  
"Idiot!" She laughed.  
  
And so they set off into the crowd, weaving through the streets, and stopping at least every five steps to talk, and be greeted, and mill about. She was vaguely aware that Wakka had never let go of her. In fact, his grasp had slid from her wrist, to her hand, and his fingers had laced with hers. Acutely aware being more accurate, in truth, but she found that she didn't mind.  
  
She was nervous about it. Taking risks always made her nervous. But Lulu found, as Wakka bought a small pastry for her from a street vendor, and handed it over to her, that it was a risk she wanted to take. Found, as Wakka grinned down at her, that it was a very good kind of nervous.  
  
Wine flowed freely, and the two partook of it. By the end of the night, Lulu and Wakka had found their way to Luca's square, where someone had constructed a huge fire, and musicians stood drumming, and playing joyful tunes on the flutes and whistles. Someone was clanging a tambourine, and many of the women of Luca had gathered to lift their skirts to their knees and dance in time to the music. Lulu, red-cheeked, and laughing, found herself in the center of the group, grasping her voluminous skirt, her bare feet beating out dance steps, and her braids swinging through the air as she turned. Other women around her clapped their hands; some stepped back to watch and drink.  
  
'How did I get here?' Lulu wondered, her mind touching briefly on how surreal it was.  
  
She looked up, and found Wakka, with mug of mead beside him on the ground, beating enthusiastically on a large drum with the other musicians. He'd been one of the best drummers in Besaid. Dancing, and feasting like this, after all, were one of the few distractions. But all those little times seemed to be rehearsal for this grand production. Lulu's heart swelled with pride as she listened to him, as she danced to his beat.  
  
He was an idiot, but he was her idiot. And she flushed redder beneath his gaze, as Wakka looked up from his drum, and focused on her.  
  
She was so beautiful. His breath caught in his throat, as he watched Lulu's tiny feet dancing to the rhythm that he was pounding out. He looked at her red cheeks, her laughing face. Her eyes were even smiling, crinkling up at the corners as she laughed. Her hair was brushed back from her face, and he could see both of those claret eyes. Wakka's heart broke as he realized how much he loved her. This was the Lulu that he knew. This was the Lulu from Besaid, before Sin, before Chappu, when they were all carefree.  
  
They danced and drummed for hours, until Wakka relinquished the drum he had borrowed, and kicked off his sandals to dance some more with Lulu. When the fire began to die down, and the crowd started to thin, Wakka made his way, with Lulu leaning against him, back down the maze of streets to the Inn. They paused along the way on one of the immense bridges, and watched the fireworks that were still going off over the Luca Dome.  
  
"Lu, it's a new world." Wakka's words slurred a little. But then...there were very few people sober in Spira tonight.  
  
"'t is."  
  
Wakka laughed. Lulu tried to very hard to speak properly. But when the inhibitions dropped like this, her own accent came out too, and he loved hearing it. It wasn't as strong as his, and he reveled in the sound.  
  
"Lu, I was thinking.."  
  
"There goes the world..."  
  
He was suddenly shy. Wakka's hand fumbled downward, and he caught up Lulu's fingers and brought them to his lips. This took Lulu off-guard, but she didn't protest, or pull her hand away like he expected.  
  
Suddenly, Wakka tilted Lulu's chin up, and his lips descended on hers. It was a bit clumsy at first. He'd kissed girls, but never her, and he was so very nervous. He found it wasn't as different, though. She had lips, and they went pliant, which encouraged him. They were wonderfully soft lips, and when his arms went around her waist to hold her up, her own arms went up around his neck.  
  
Amidst all the joy and happiness in Luca that night, all at once, no one could match the happiness that came into being on that lonely little bridge overlooking the Luca Dome. 


End file.
